There are iconic teams which come out of nowhere to win it all. It's a beautiful thing for a team and its community when this happens, the delicious joy of celebrating winning baseball day after day, spring to summer to fall. Maybe these A's will become one of those iconic teams. I know they believe they will.

The Rangers, mind you, need to win only one of the final two games in Oakland to clinch the AL West title. Alas, the Rangers have been on cruise control for much of the season, and now they’re Microsoft trapped in a room with 25 hotshot techies, all out for blood.Quotes from the Southland:
From Mike DiGiovanna's recap of last night's Angels game in today's Los Angeles Times:
"With the ballclub we have, we should not be in this position," said right fielder Torii Hunter, who willed the Angels to several September victories with a .351 average and 27 RBIs in 28 games during the month. "It's as simple as that."

(Angels Manager Mike) Scioscia wasn't willing to admit the strong finish only highlighted the disappointment of the slow start – exemplified by Albert Pujols' .190 average and homerless start into May – and the post-All-Star break lull. "The season is 162 games. You can't really chop up the good parts and the bad parts and say, 'Hey, we could have played at this pace or that pace,'" Scioscia said. "We set ourselves back early in the year and never quite got back into a position we wanted to be. We paid a price for it.

Hat Tip to Joe Maddon:
The Ray's were also eliminated by the A's last night. Rays' skipper Joe Maddon, one of the best in the game, defines keeping a level head. Here he is in Marc Tompkin's article in the Tampa Bay Times after the Rays won last night, but before the A's-Rangers game had been decided:

Manager Joe Maddon insisted he'd play it exactly that way, planning to watch the DVR'ed version of the Monday Night Football game, read some more of Ken Follett's new Winter of the World and go to bed believing they'd be alive when James Shields takes the mound tonight. "I'll find out (this) morning," he said. "Regardless, I just love the way our guys are going about their business."

Meanwhile...Dallas Braden is Imploding -- Dallas Braden, he of the 2010 Mother's Day perfect game and a $3.35 million contract this year, got some bad publicity with yesterday's Deadspin article detailing the incident where he was allegedly assaulted in his car. This follows up on his recent outburst at a community meeting lambasting the City of Stockton's (his hometown and current home) -- ineffective response to crime in the community. At that meeting he declared that he was leaving and moving to Sacramento. Braden is arbitration eligible next year and, given this year's teams success, his frequent trips to the disabled list and this recent unsavory media coverage, the A's might just decline arbitration and make him a free agent. Braden is one of the most affable players on the team and a good pitcher when healthy. Here's hoping everything works out for him personally and professionally.

1 comment:

Instead of complaining about Pujols' slow start (over which no one, including Mr. Pujols had any control), Angels fans should be complaining that their front office waited a month to bring up Trout. The A's are lucky that they did.